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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoTom Dodge | DISPATCH PHOTOSA $9.5 million renovation has transformed the Riverside Health Center at Riverside Methodist Hospital into the Bing Cancer Center. It will take a holistic approach to fighting the disease and will be in competition for patients with the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University.

With the official debut of the Arthur G.H. Bing Cancer Center on Thursday, Riverside Methodist
Hospital officials say they’re raising holistic treatment of cancer patients to a new level in
central Ohio.

The Bing Cancer Center isn’t comprehensive in its scope of cancer care; radiation oncology
services, for example, will be offered elsewhere on the Riverside campus.

But the five-story building at Thomas Lane and Olentangy River Road — known as the Riverside
Health Center before its $9.5 million makeover — brings together many outpatient services under one
roof and adds new ones.

The Bing also will serve as a gateway to cancer services and clinical trials offered at
Riverside Methodist and other OhioHealth hospitals.

The emphasis at the Bing will be on the whole person, not just the battle against their cancer,
said Dr. Jeffrey G. Bell, the hospital’s medical director of cancer services.

“I think the entire person can be treated other places, but I don’t think it’s been the focus
like we’re making it the focus,” Bell said.

The Bing’s unveiling is part of a renewed focus on cancer care that also has resulted in a
recent renovation of Riverside’s inpatient oncology unit. The push comes as the 297-foot-high
future home of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Critical Care Center is being built less
than 3 miles south along Rt. 315.OhioHealth officials think the renovations will help them compete
with the James and Mount Carmel Health System for local cancer patients.

As a hospital system, OhioHealth treats about 4,500 cancer patients annually, according to Anna
Hensley, Riverside’s vice president of oncology.She estimates that about 1,000 patients will go to
the Bing Cancer Center each month. That figure includes the multiple visits that patients will make
during their cancer treatment, and the patients who will go there for appointments with nine
physicians whose practices specialize in gynecology/oncology, breast-cancer surgery and surgical
oncology.

As part of the renovation, the number of infusion beds for chemotherapy has increased from 12 to
20. Sliding doors give patients the option of greater privacy than they had in the past, plus room
for a family member or friend to provide company during the hours-long chemotherapy treatments.An
on-site pharmacy will make consultations with pharmacists more convenient. The Ovarian Cancer
Alliance of Ohio donated six iPads for patients to use during the wait.

As a result of patient input, the cancer center’s cafe will feature prepackaged foods to
minimize aromas that could make chemotherapy patients queasy. Patients visiting the building also
will have access to an art studio and a privately owned hat and wig shop, Over My Head, which
relocated to the Bing from Upper Arlington.

The building also will serve as the home base for Riverside’s patient navigators — specially
trained nurses who help guide patients through treatment and recovery. The new center includes
rooms in which the navigators can consult privately with patients.

It’s during that recovery — what Bell calls “survivorship” — that the Bing Cancer Center stands
out, Riverside officials say.The building houses a range of integrative services, many of them new,
including massage therapy, acupuncture and mind-body techniques meant to help patients relax and
handle complex emotions. Not all the services are covered by health insurance, and Riverside
officials are working on some form of need-based assistance, said Carlene Gilmore, business project
manager for cancer services there.

Riverside’s cancer patients also now can receive treatment for lymphedema, or swelling in the
arm or leg. It’s a side effect often brought on by mastectomies and the removal of underarm lymph
tissue.

The center is named for Dr. Arthur Bing, a Columbus plastic surgeon whose wife, Dr. Hetty Bing,
was treated for colon cancer at Riverside about 40 years ago. He donated $2 million toward the
project, the lead gift in a $6 million fundraising campaign.